http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditio ... index.html

Surgery to stunt disabled girl's growth raises ethical questions
POSTED: 8:25 p.m. EST, January 4, 2007

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- In a case fraught with ethical questions, the parents of a severely mentally and physically disabled child have stunted her growth to keep their little "pillow angel" a manageable and more portable size.

The uterus and breast tissue of the bedridden 9-year-old girl were removed at a Seattle hospital, and she received large doses of hormones to halt her growth. She is now 4-foot-5; her parents say she would otherwise probably reach a normal 5-foot-6.

The case has captured attention nationwide and abroad via the Internet, with some decrying the parents' actions as perverse and akin to eugenics. Some ethicists question the parents' claim that the drastic treatment will benefit their daughter and allow them to continue caring for her at home. (Watch a bioethicist discuss Ashley's condition. )

University of Pennsylvania ethicist Art Caplan said the case is troubling and reflects "slippery slope" thinking among parents who believe "the way to deal with my kid with permanent behavioral problems is to put them into permanent childhood."

Right or wrong, the couple's decision highlights a dilemma thousands of parents face in struggling to care for severely disabled children as they grow up.

"This particular treatment, even if it's OK in this situation, and I think it probably is, is not a widespread solution and ignores the large social issues about caring for people with disabilities," Dr. Joel Frader, a medical ethicist at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, said Thursday. "As a society, we do a pretty rotten job of helping caregivers provide what's necessary for these patients."

The case involves a girl identified only as Ashley on a blog her parents created after her doctors wrote about her treatment in October's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The journal did not disclose the parents' names or where they live; the couple do not identify themselves on their blog, either.

Shortly after birth, Ashley had feeding problems and showed severe developmental delays. Her doctors diagnosed static encephalopathy, which means severe brain damage. They do not know what caused it.

Her condition has left her in an infant state, unable to sit up, roll over, hold a toy or walk or talk. Her parents say she will never get better. She is alert, startles easily, and smiles, but does not maintain eye contact, according to her parents, who call the brown-haired little girl their "pillow angel."

She goes to school for disabled children, but her parents care for her at home and say they have been unable to find suitable outside help.

An editorial in the medical journal called "the Ashley treatment" ill-advised and questioned whether it will even work. But her parents say it has succeeded so far.

She had surgery in July 2004 and recently completed the hormone treatment. She weighs about 65 pounds, and is about 13 inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter than she would be as an adult, according to her parents' blog.

"Ashley's smaller and lighter size makes it more possible to include her in the typical family life and activities that provide her with needed comfort, closeness, security and love: meal time, car trips, touch, snuggles, etc.," her parents wrote.

Also, Ashley's parents say keeping her small will reduce the risk of bedsores and other conditions that can afflict bedridden patients. In addition, they say preventing her from going through puberty means she won't experience the discomfort of periods or grow breasts that might develop breast cancer, which runs in the family.

"Even though caring for Ashley involves hard and continual work, she is a blessing and not a burden," her parents say. Still, they write, "Unless you are living the experience ... you have no clue what it is like to be the bedridden child or their caregivers."

Caplan questioned how preventing normal growth could benefit the patient. Treatment that is not for a patient's direct benefit "only seems wrong to me," the ethicist said.

Dr. Douglas Diekema, an ethicist at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, where Ashley was treated, said he met with the parents and became convinced they were motivated by love and the girl's best interests.

Diekema said he was mainly concerned with making sure the little girl would actually benefit and not suffer any harm from the treatment. She did not, and is doing well, he said.

"The more her parents can be touching her and caring for her ... and involving her in family activities, the better for her," he said. "The parents' argument was, `If she's smaller and lighter, we will be able to do that for a longer period of time."'

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i'm really not sure what to think about this. on one hand, i can understand, but on the other hand, it just seems so so very wrong.

Why don't they just cut her up into smaller bite size pieces?

we reported this roughly 36 hours before cnn. just fyi.

That's some hard news reporting, buddy.

um... yes it is!

yeah, this reminded me of a special i was watching once on this British teenage girl whom had her legs broken, and part of her bones removed so that she wouldn't grow taller than the hight requirement were at the time, to become a stewardess.

i don't think it really compares but there you have it....

her parents' blog, including photos:

http://ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com/

I just....

they censored the family's faces??? what the fuck?

what is it? "we don't want to be recognized as the parents of our retarted child but here she is in fully glory"?

Terri Schiavo's blog.

http://durrrrr.blogspot.com/

no no... i'm serious

nnnnnnngg

you dorks broke my thread.

I read about this this morning and was wondering if someone would post it here. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it; mostly just

oh and c_b, I read about it on the BBC and the UK's The Independant

There are some issues I can never form definite opinions on... and this is one of them.

holy shit.

i used to work with kids just like her. we had two kinds of admissions to the nursing home:

1) tiny babies who required massive nursing attention (the first time i saw a tiny toddler wheelchair, i almost burst into tears)

2) adolescents who got too big for their parents to care for them at home.

i really don't know what is worse for a child like that: being taken away from the comfort of home and be at the mercy of drifting nursing home staffing patterns where the child may have to spend all day in bed, or spend hours in a wet diaper and may get little to no stimuation over the weekend...or be put thru a surgery like that.

i think the parents did what they thought was right, and that child will at least benefit from the warmth of her family around her.

Or stuff her into a little jar like a bonsai kitten.

My girl and I were discussing this last night (and fark owns all other news sources) and the only thing we can up with is that we hope we never have to be in such a situation.

the london times i think reported it before the independent. we own the london times so we stole it off their site. so techinically, we weren't first. ok.

I bet 10 years ago people used to laugh at kids who majored in bio-ethics.